Matthew 6:9 "Abba's Lap"

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Matthew 6:9
"This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven...""

As children of the Living God, we have some exclusive privileges. We can invade the throne room of God and climb up on His lap and call Him Abba (Father/Daddy).

Several years ago at a small men's retreat I went to, Brennan Manning told us that he got a call one day from a young lady he knew. Although she was not particularly religious herself, she knew Mr. Manning was a Christian and wondered if she could ask a favor. She told him that her father was in the hospital dying of cancer. Her father was a member of a local mega-church, and the pastor was evidently a very busy man and had not yet stopped by to visit or encourage or pray with him, and so this young lady wondered if Mr. Manning might go to the hospital and pray with her father.

When Mr. Manning arrived at the hospital room, he found the father in bed with a chair sitting right next to the bed, very close to the bed.  Mr. Manning said something like,  "I see you're expecting company."   The old man said he wasn't and wondered why Manning thought that.

Manning said, "I just noticed the chair pulled up close to the bed there and thought maybe it was for someone to sit and talk." Then the old man admitted than in a way it was for someone to sit there and talk.  He said, "I've gone to church all of my life. I believe in God. I believe that God loves me and sent His Son Jesus to provide forgiveness for my sins. But I never quite understood about prayer. Whenever I tried to pray it just seemed like I was talking to myself. I never felt like I was getting through. I never felt like I was actually communicating. So, after a while, quit trying to pray. Then, a few days ago, one of the chaplains was here and he told me that prayer doesn't have to be fancy language or any certain words. He said prayer was just talking to God like you would talk to a friend. So, I had the nurse pull this chair over here close to me, and these last few days, whenever nobody is around, I pretend God is sitting in the chair, and I just talk to Him, just like He is a friend sitting there."

 Then the old man asked Mr. Manning, "Do you think what I'm doing is really praying? I mean, when I'm just laying here talking to the chair, it seems like God really is sitting there. I feel like God really is listening to me." Mr. Manning assured him that God was listening, and that the chaplain was right, that prayer is talking to God just like He's a friend. Mr. Manning told him that in a sense, God was sitting in the chair because Jesus had promised to be here with us wherever we are, whenever we need Him.

The old man was grateful, but then expressed concern that his daughter might not understand, that she might think he was losing his mind, laying there talking to a chair and pretending God was in the chair. So, Mr. Manning promised not to say anything.

 About a week later, Mr. Manning got a call from the young lady again. She wanted to thank him for visiting her father. She said her father had died during the previous night when nobody was around. She said, "He looked really peaceful, like he wasn't in pain or afraid or anything, but it was really odd. When the nurse came in and found him dead, he was half out of bed, kind of hugging that chair that sat next to him."

As I was remembering this story, I was reminded again of incredible privilege of having an exclusive relationship with a Loving God who says, “Call me Abba. ”  And I realized again that prayer is not something we’ve got to force ourselves to do because its what Christians are supposed to do, prayer is sometimes just a matter of sitting on Abba’s lap.